Last month, a link to download President Obama’s weekly address was spotted on YouTube, fueling speculation that YouTube would soon offer the option to download videos to a broader audience. Today, the company confirmed that downloads are indeed coming to YouTube, with an interesting additional twist: paid downloads.
In a blog post, YouTube writes, “partners could choose to offer their video downloads for free or for a small fee paid through Google Checkout. Partners can set prices and decide which license they want to attach to the downloaded video files.” To start, YouTube is showcasing a number of video downloads from universities, while several popular YouTube channels are testing paid downloads.
As with the Obama video, the only format currently supported is mp4. The bigger opportunity, it would seem, is making paid downloads formatted and available for mobile devices and mp3 players, potentially turning YouTube into a competitor to iTunes.
Of course, a lot of other things would have to happen in between there and here – deals with more movies studios, tv networks, and record labels, a system for YouTube to generate transaction fees, and a crackdown on the dozens of tools that already let you download YouTube videos. Nonetheless, that would seem like the likely direction for YouTube and its new download features, especially given the limited success the site has had with other revenue generating features so far.